david-avfc

Not really a fan of the farcical levels of added time, the game is supposed to be 90 minutes not 110 minutes, will be very difficult for teams and players to adapt during a game when they have no idea how long is still to play, and the issue will very quickly become how (in)consistent the new rules will be applied by refs. “Time wasting” is only an issue because refs let the players get away with it most of the time and then only start applying the rules at completely arbitrary moments during a game, usually too late or other times just randomly if they have decided to take a dislike to a certain player. It’s really not a difficult rule to enforce, if anything it must be one of the easiest because there’s literally nothing else happening whilst the offence is being committed. But once again rather than telling the refs to just do their jobs properly on the pitch and to use their common sense, they have come up with a convoluted rule change which will only change the problem rather than fix it. It’s like a never ending whack-a-mole they just react to one thing until the next thing inevitably follows.

If it’s ACL it’s the same as Wesley / Trezeguet / Heaton right? It was about 6+ months for Trezeguet but well over a year for Wesley

Buendia injury confirmed so presumably Zaniolo will be his replacement

Someone had to be leaving surely. My guess would be Coutinho as this lad is an attacking playmaker as well and there’s no way both could fit in

Yeah agree with around 7 out of 10. The quality of signings is certainly there but a couple more additions would really elevate things. Think another forward would make a difference whether that’s a centre forward, another winger or more of a number 10 playmaker I don’t know but it looks like Emery wants to play with Watkins, Diaby + another as the advanced players, I’m not convinced Buendia, Bailey or Coutinho (plus Philogene, still a wildcard) as the + 1 are reliable / consistent enough if we want to break into that top 6 as permanent members

But if we sold or loaned him and then bought a new striker we’d be over the squad limits for non-homegrown players for Europe, so it would require some careful wheeling and dealing in the squad and/or potentially leaving another area light. If one striker leaves it would probably be Duran for that reason, unless we got rid of both to make way for 1 better striker which could happen I guess but starts to getting more complicated than just giving Archer a go in the cups

It would be an absolutely bizarre thing to lock yourself into that’s for sure… Several people on here appear determined to prove they know all the ins and outs of player contracts and transfer terms when in reality without experience working inside a football club or as an agent no one has any idea. I have no idea on the finer working of such a transfer clause either but through common sense I know you can’t force an employment contract on someone against their will, and 3rd party ownership of players is banned which presumably rules out villa having an enforceable contract whilst he’s contracted to another club. It just doesn’t seem to me like this buy back clause is anywhere near as simple as some are suggesting. It seems like it gives us a lot more flexibility than without it which is a good thing, but the idea that it’s as straightforward as clicking our fingers and having complete control over another team’s player I just don’t buy at all. I’m open to be proven wrong but other than “trust me that’s not how it works” I haven’t seen anyone put any evidence forward.

It was the preseason before the last one where he really impressed (totally understandable why you’d want to erase the Gerrard 12 months from your memory though), he looked like a real prospect and I remember being quite surprised when Smith dropped him when the season started (and we had an absolute shocker to Watford when half the players didn’t look fit), of course afterwards Gerrard was allergic to wingers so looked like he wouldn’t get a chance. Feels like a nice little redemption arc going from a top prospect to almost a forgotten man back to potential breaking through

A buyback clause just means Burnley cannot reject a specific transfer bid from villa at a set price within the set time frames. Burnley could still accept any other offer from any other club, whenever they want. This isn’t a 3rd party ownership deal in which the club still effectively controls the player. In this scenario the player would no longer be contracted to Aston Villa and would therefore have no control on what the player or new club chooses to do afterwards, other than having access to a specific release clause. The club cannot force Burnley to reject other transfer offers, because the player is contracted solely to them, and villa cannot force the player or any other player for that matter in the future to sign a contract and rejoin the club without agreeing all the usual personal terms. There is no guarantee if a buy back was activated that villa would be the only club with an offer accepted or that the player would sign for villa - they could have a more attractive offer elsewhere or they just might not want to return in general after we previously sold them.

I understand it completely, perhaps you have a lack of understanding that other people have different opinions to your own?

Not sure on this one, if he goes to Burnley and becomes a first team regular in the Prem his value immediately shoots up well beyond £12m. Look at Colwill and Lavia no one had heard of them a year ago then one season of Prem experience for other clubs and they’re suddenly worth £40m. I’m sceptical of the suggested buyback clause, best case scenario he does really well and we end up paying a big fee just to re-sign our own academy player, worst case scenario he does really well and he joins another club voiding the buyback, or the medium case scenario we never want him back in which case we should have pushed for more cash upfront.

I can’t remember many or indeed any clubs outside of the Champions League elite making one of these buy back clauses stick, and I can’t understand why Burnley would agree to such a thing just to save a couple of mil of a transfer fee unless the terms are heavily skewed in their favour, which then makes it pretty pointless for us to agree to. As others have said there’s no guarantee we could even bring the player back anyway, there are examples of players moving elsewhere and bypassing the buy back option entirely

For all the fancy flicks and nice little bits of skill, I’m just not sure how effective he is as an all round player. There’s always going to be moments when we’re wowed by something he does but I just can’t see him getting 15+ goals and assists over the season (excluding games against Micky mouse opposition in the cups) which really we need from a final third player

Think it makes a lot of sense to cash in on Digne if there’s a chance, decent player but an expensive one and unlikely to justify the cost IMO. But the timing is really poor, just a week before the start of the season and with Moreno injured, there’s not going to be enough time to bring someone else in.

I think people need to understand that Archer is a totally different type of forward to Watkins, he's not an all-action striker, he's a fox in the box type who thrives off players around him feeding opportunities in good areas, to which he's proven he can convert at an excellent rate. He's not the sort of player who's going to be heavily involved in the build up so yeah there's going to be times when he's quiet - it doesn't mean he's a bad player or not good enough for villa. There will be times when he plays the same as he did tonight but gets a goal or two and everyone thinks he's brilliant. He has good movement already and a great eye for positioning himself to get those chances but we've seen Emery elevate Watkins to a completely different level and if he gets Archer on the same trajectory then he has a really high ceiling.

Shame he hasn't really grabbed his chance in the same way Philogene has, but also should remember Archer isn't the type of player who's going to be involved all over the pitch, he's not an all action forward like Watkins, he's a fox in the box type and that means he's going to go through spells of not contributing before he pops up with or goal or an assist from inside the penalty area

I think Aaron Ramsey is still a season away from really being considered ready for the first team. He had a really useful spell in the championship last season but it was very disrupted with injury and switching clubs. 21 starts across the 2 loans is certainly valuable experience but really he needs a full season of being a mainstay in a side to really prove himself. If he repeated his Boro form across a whole season I think it forces people sit up and take note, when it’s just a handful of games in a side already flying high it’s not quite the same. I hope we don’t sell him as he has real promise and it’s a great story with him being a local lad. Other clubs are sniffing around for a reason, because they see he’s a talent. But it could be hard to turn down the cash for a player not in our immediate plans and for the player it could be a good move

Neither are good enough but anyone saying Olsen is worse has a short memory, Nyland was an atrocious footballer whereas Olsen is just poor. Olsen’s problem is that he’s not good in any area, coupled with being rusty because he so rarely plays, whereas Nyland despite occasionally being ok in some areas was so god damn awful in others it was a surprise he even made it as professional, there’s a reason he’s been released on a free 5 times in the last 3 years - we paid to cancel his contract because he was so bad and no other club has wanted to keep him for even 1 full season since

We must just want this Pubill lad so he can link back up with Wesley again, he is the key to unlocking the full potential of our Brazilian goal machine

He played wing back regularly for Cardiff so not sure that criticism holds in general, although I didn’t watch the game last night so can’t comment about his performance albeit most reports seem to be mostly positive about him

Completely agree on a back up keeper, not convinced by Olsen at all. Someone like Navas would make sense on a year long deal. Whoever it is needs to be competent on the ball as much as anything else. Don’t think Moreno was a properly serious one, a few months out which has mostly been absorbed by the close season anyway, probably back some point in August

Marschall does count but technically qualifies as an U21 player, which for all intents and purposes has the same outcome but offers a bit more flexibility. I think Philogene and Aaron Ramsey are probably the closest to stepping up to the squad properly. Philogene has started both friendlies so far and McGinn made some positive comments about him so maybe he could be a surprise inclusion in the squad this year. Ramsey has a good chance too considering he could cover his brother whilst he’s injured. But I’m not sure if Emery will want to keep players just for the numbers or if he will send them out on loan for game time, they might be better suited to another loan spell. As you say we have a load of youngsters behind the scenes who could step up to the bench if really needed, Kadan Young for example seems like has caught Emery’s eye and with his pace he could surely be thrown on for 10-15 minutes in Europe to rest someone else’s legs. The benefit of U21 players is they don’t actually need to be registered in the 25 man squad, so all those players you mentioned + Marschall and A Ramsey would all be eligible without taking up a squad place if desired, apart from Kellyman who only recently signed (need to be at the club for 2 years to qualify as an eligible U21 player for Europe)

If you look at our squad we’re actually pretty tight on the squad limits already. As plenty of people have already discussed the club-homegrown rules for Europe are an extra restriction to contend with. Really the only position missing is a right back to challenge Cash, otherwise it’s a case of one in, one out (plus the likes of Hause, Traore, Sanson who are clearly not going to be here next season).

Looks a decent player but was hyped up after relativity little for Leeds I guess with the links to Johnson, Doku and Gnonto maybe there is something in these links, unless they were all just nothing more than plan Bs if we failed with Diaby

£2m for Nakamba is probably a couple of mil cheap but realistically he isn’t part of our plans and if any other PL clubs bar Luton thought he was worth having they’d have jumped all over it. Rather than worrying about what amounts to a few quid in the world of PL clubs it’s best to shake hands and part ways